Harvor was born to Danish immigrant artisans in Saint John, New Brunswick[1] and grew up on the Kingston Peninsula.
She enrolled at Concordia University in 1983, receiving an MA in Creative Writing in 1986.
Her third short story collection, Let Me Be the One, was a finalist for the 1996 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction.
Her second poetry book, The Long Cold Green Evenings of Spring, was a finalist for the 1997 Pat Lowther Award, and her first novel, Excessive Joy Injures the Heart, was chosen as one of the ten best books of the year by The Toronto Star in 2000.
In 2015, Harvor won second prize in Prairie Fire magazine's Fiction category for "An Animal Trainer Urging A Big Cat Out of its Cage".